tain quarters of the island. Thus we may account for the disappearance of the Taiwan harbour within the brief period of 200 years, as well as for the formation of Takow harbour further south. The formation of a great coral-reef breakwater must also be taken into account. Perhaps no example can be found anywhere better than in Formosa, of the power of water to transform the physical aspect of a country. In many places on that island no settled water-courses exist ; and thus the tor- rents in the impetus of their headlong rush down the mountain steeps, attack weak positions in the rocks and soils and form new passages for themselves.
On leaving the mountain top our course lay for an hour through the dry bed of a stream, cut through a black rock stratum, where we discovered traces of shale and coal. On reaching a small stream we found Mrs. Hong, who told us that her husband would put us up at the village. This lady was accompanied by a party of young savages who carried tackle for fishing. Lalung village is only separated from the territor^^ of the most purely savage aborigines by the stream which I have just described, and its inhabitants number about 1,000 souls. Hong we found from home, but he soon returned and informed us that Boon, his eldest son, had lately lost his wife and was off to his savage kinsmen in the mountains to secure another bride. He was expected to return that night, and would be accompanied by an escort from his partner's tribe. Here, in these Pepohoan villages, I found the only instance I encountered of Chinamen employing middle-men or brokers to deal with natives of the country. It seems that Pepohoans are very often used as go-betweens in the barter trade between the mountaineers and the Chinese; for the latter, though they are great and patient traders, yet as a rule possess but little of the
